The head of Indonesia's special forces unit will visit Australia next
month to follow-up plans for a resumption of military links between the
two countries.

Australia stopped joint training exercises after the Indonesian
military was implicated in human rights atrocities during East Timor's
bloody breakaway from Jakarta in 1999.

Indonesia's Army Chief General Ryamizard Ryacudu described the
restoration of links between the Kopassus and Australian troops as
"important", the state Antara news agency reported.

General Ryacudu said Kopassus chief Major-General Sriyanto would visit
Australia next month to look into the resumption of ties.

Earlier this month, Chief of Australia Defence Forces, General Peter
Cosgrove, said the resumption of ties with Kopassus was a necessary part
of the regional war against terrorism because the unit was a major counter
terrorism force in Indonesia.

"We're saying that we should focus on the here and now," he
said.

"We should collaborate strictly in those areas where we can all
agree that it would be folly if we didn't have some relationship and some
arrangement to help save lives."

----------------------

Financial Times [UK] August 19, 2003

War on terror creates unlikely allies

By Anna Fifield

Amid the rubble of Jakarta's shattered JW Marriotthotel, Indonesian and
Australian police and forensic experts are working side-by-side sifting
for evidence.

Thrown together by last year's Bali bombing in which 89 Australians
died, the two countries, close neighbours but hardly traditional strategic
allies, are developing a security relationship, which analysts say could
pave the way for strengthened bilateral ties across the board.

John Howard's government has a history of poor relations with Jakarta,
mainly due to Australia's armed intervention in East Timor in 1999 to stop
the violence stemming from the territory's vote for independence from
Indonesia.

After the Bali bombing, Australian police met with some resistance when
staking their claim to a leading role in the investigations, especially as
Canberra was questioning Jakarta's ability to respond effectively.

However, such sensitivities were soothed by the success of the
investigation in catching and prosecuting key players from the Jemaah
Islamiah group blamed for the attack, including Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, who
was this month sentenced to death for his part in the bombing.

This time around Australia's participation has not been contested.

The increased level of co-operation between the two country's defence
and security networks is unprecedented, says Alan Dupont, of Australian
National University's strategic and defence studies centre.

"Relations have been in deep freeze after East Timor but they've
started to thaw since Bali and the [Australian Federal Police's] success
there," he says. "This security and military action is basically
a template for the kind of co-operation Australia and Indonesia could have
in other areas."

But unlike Bali, where a joint task force was set up, Australia is
merely assisting the Indonesian-led inquiry into the Marriott blast,
contributing police, forensic and intelligence officers to the Indonesian
squad.

As one of the lessons from Bali, Australia is now sharing specialist
skills - as well as state-of-the-art technology and forensics - with
Indonesia in "a very co-operative, genuine way", without coming
across as colonial, Mr Dupont says.

Greg Moriarty, an assistant secretary at the department of foreign
affairs, adds: "Indonesia realised Bali was a huge, significant thing
and that they didn't have a good a grip on JI. They had to make a
political point [after Bali] but they were nowhere near as well-policed as
they are now."

Australia can take a lot of the credit for helping Indonesia upgrade
its police and intelligence forces, he says. As well as transferring
practical skills, the government has committed A$10m ($6.6m) over four
years to boosting Indonesia's counter-terrorist ability.

"If you look at the working-level co-operation on law and order,
and particularly on terrorism, we've really achieved some good
outcomes," Mr Moriarty said.

Indonesia has asked for Australia's help in financing, training and
drafting legislation for its financial intelligence unit to stop terrorist
funding.

The Australian Federal Police agents are also due to provide training
for Indonesian officers at the Jakarta-based Transnational Crime Centre,
which will look at wider issues such as money laundering and drugs, and is
similar to one already established in Canberra.

But their new co-operation is challenging Canberra's much-vaunted
morals in the war against terrorism - Mr Howard this week said Australia
would resume ties with the country's notorious Kopassus special forces.

Australia stopped joint training exercises with the Indonesian military
following massacres in East Timor, which were allegedly co-ordinated by
Kopassus. In addition, seven Kopassus members were jailed this year for
torturing a Papuan separatist leader to death.

But Mr Howard now says: "There is a capacity within that
organisation to deal with hijacking and terrorist situations - I do think
it is appropriate in limited cases to have contact."

He added that Kopassus had the most effective capability in Indonesia
to resolve situations which could involve Australians. The equivalent of
the SAS in Australia and Britain, Kopassus responds to terror and bomb
attacks, and to hijackings.

Mr Dupont said: "Australia cannot have any sort of effective
co-operation with Indonesia without them - Kopassus and the military are
part of the solution."

---------------------------

AFP, Aug. 20, 2003

Indonesia praises Aussie links

INDONESIA'S army chief today welcomed Australian plans to resume links
with an Indonesian special forces unit which has been implicated in abuses
in East Timor and elsewhere.

General Ryamizard Ryacudu described the restoration of links between
the Kopassus special forces and Australian troops as
"important," the state Antara news agency reported.

Ryacudu said Kopassus chief Major General Sriyanto would visit
Australia next month to look into the possibility of resuming ties.

Australia stopped joint training exercises after the Indonesian
military was implicated in militia atrocities during East Timor's bloody
breakaway from Jakarta in 1999.

But Australia's defence chief Peter Cosgrove said this month that
resumption of ties with Kopassus was a necessary part of the regional war
against terrorism.

Cosgrove said Kopassus was the major counter terrorism force in
Indonesia, meaning his troops had to have some contact with it, even if in
a strictly limited capacity.

"We're saying that we should focus on the here and now and what is
very necessary for the safety of our people and Indonesian people,"
he said.

"We should collaborate strictly in those areas where we can all
agree that it would be folly if we didn't have some relationship and some
arrangement to help save lives."

Opposition Labor foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd has called on
Defence Minister Robert Hill to explain why the government did not
announce the move.

He said he had serious concerns about what he termed Kopassus's
historical ties with paramilitary and terrorist groups.